The Bourton-on-the-Water Model Village was a fun addition to our first day in the Cotswolds. We all met there in the early afternoon and spent a little time walking around and marveling at the work that went into building this scale replica of the town. (Read about it here.)
The model village was constructed between 1936 and 1940 and was designed to encourage tourism. It has more than 100 buildings made of real Cotswold stone and timbers.
Everything is to scale, with diminuitive trees, bushes, and flowers pruned to stay small.
It’s pretty cool. I kept thinking about how impressive it was that someone had the idea to do this…and then actually did it! It was a massive project to complete in just four years.
When I talked to my students about the village earlier that day, we discussed ways that we could do a sketch of it that would show that the buildings are only 1/9th the size of the actual real-life buildings that they’re modeled after. Here’s what I decided to do…
Showing my friends, Karen and Linda, standing by the replica of The Dial House Inn made it clear that something was going on with the size of the buildings. Either Linda and Karen were giants or the buildings were small. The journaling provided the details needed to complete the page.
It’s a one-of-a-kind sketch of a one-of-a-kind place, and it captures my memories of that day perfectly.
3 Comments
Thanks for the lovely description of the model village and your artwork. It felt like I was there (almost)!!
Very unique!!
That must have been so much fun. what a great idea.